Paula (character)

Infobox character


caption=
name = "Paula"
first = "The Garden Weasel"
gender = Female
age =
born =
occupation = Talent booker on "The Larry Sanders Show"
family =
spouse =
portrayer = Janeane Garofalo
creator = Garry Shandling & Dennis Klein

Paula is a fictional character played by Janeane Garofalo on the American television series "The Larry Sanders Show". Throughout the run of the series, her last name is never mentioned.

Paula works as the talent booker on the show. She has a very dry sense of humour and cringes at any display of sentimentality.

In the episode #32 "Montana" as Larry is trying to assemble the former show staffers for another kick at the can after his sabbatical, he asks Paula if she'd be interested in continuing at her old job. She says that she has an offer to be the associate producer on the "Conan O'Brien Show". Larry's response comes in form of a question: "I can understand why you'd want to take the Conan O'Brien job over this one. It's a good sh... How long do you think that's going to stay on the air?", to which frightened Paula replies: "See you Monday".

However, Paula's second stint with the show is not without problems as Larry comes very close to firing her in episode #35 after several high profile guest pull out of the commitment despite being already booked. In a conversation with Artie, Larry expresses a personal opinion that Paula isn't right for the job "because she doesn't have the right personality". He goes on to state that "she's too....", but before Larry can finish, Artie interjects with three offerings "abrasive?", "brusque?", and "incapable of putting a performer at ease because she has a basic contempt for the business?". Larry answer is a vehement "no" after each of the first two, and a strong "yes" after the third one.

In the episode #71 "The Matchmaker" she gets an inexperienced assistant Mary Lou Collins who makes frequent mistakes in research notes for Larry's interviews leading to several on-air embarrassing situations during the Nicollette Sheridan segment.

The episode #76 "Pain Equals Funny" is Paula's last appearance. After performing the booking job for five years, she gets an offer to be the producer on a daytime programme "". On one hand she is not thrilled about going to daytime, but on the other it's the realisation of her dream to one day produce. Also, as she tells Larry about her present job while informing him that she's leaving: "I can only derive a limited amount of personal satisfaction from booking the parrot lady". Larry wants to keep her and immediately offers her a promotion to produce the "Larry Sanders Show". According to how Larry envisioned her promotion right there on the spot, she'd be working under the show's longtime executive producer Artie, which she ecstatically accepts. However, the arrangement quickly turns sour as Artie, already feeling disrespected and threatened by the whole proceeding, walks off the show following a disagreement with Paula over a production issue of lighting during which Larry takes her side. Faced with a sudden crisis, Larry lets her produce that day's show by herself, before summoning her to his office to inform her that the arrangement won't work and ask her to see if the daytime job is still open. On the same occasion he lets her know how much he's always liked her, basically coming on to her, and also expressing hope that once all has settled down they can maybe go out. Angry and flattered at the same time, perplexed Paula says that she's never been fired this way. As she's packing her stuff the next day, Artie approaches Paula at her desk and after imparting some words of wisdom from his long experience being a producer says that there're still some tricks that he could teach her, meaning that he had a change of heart and is now fine with her working alongside him. However, the very next day after seeing her in the office, Larry is now unhappy to learn about the new turn because as he says to Artie: "I never would've told her I liked her if I'd known she was staying". This was the last time the character of Paula appeared on the show.